The United States said on Friday it refused to deal with Vladimir Putin “as if nothing had happened” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, commenting on the Russian president’s invitation to the G20 summit scheduled for November, as well as his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
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“The United States continues to believe that we can’t just ignore Russia’s participation in the international community or international institutions,” the door-keeper told reporters. State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter.
She did not specify whether, because of this invitation, Washington would refuse to go to the summit or not.
Indonesia announced on Friday that it had invited Volodymyr Zelensky and confirmed that it had invited Russia, a member of this group of the world’s largest economies, as well as its President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit scheduled for November.
US President Joe Biden “has publicly expressed his opposition to President Putin’s presence at the G20,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, welcoming the Ukrainians’ invitation.
Jen Psaki added that the United States was in contact with the Indonesians and that the Russian invitation dated back to before the invasion, which began on February 24.
Indonesia, which chairs the G20 this year, has come under heavy pressure from the West, led by the United States, to exclude Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
But Jakarta resisted, arguing that its position as host required it to remain “impartial”, and its president Joko Widodo suggested that the Ukrainian president’s invitation was thus a compromise.